Victor Weisskopf was one of the most influential physicists in the
20th Century. He was Eugene Wigner's first doctoral student, and he did his
postdoc with Heisenberg, Schroedinger, Pauli, and Bohr. His talks were very
easy to understand because he knew what he was talking about.

He was born and raised in Vienna, and learned how to play piano during his
childhood. He continued playing piano with his ten fingers. He used to
say Physics is a Symphony. Here again he knew what he was talking about.

Andre
Previn is one of the most successful symphony conductors of our time.
People say this and that about his conducting style, but he talks like a genius
when he give TV interviews. I learned many things about music from him.

Whenever he talks about music, he has "harmony" in mind. He was of course
interested in generating beautiful sounds by combining those from different
instruments.

In one of his latest TV interviews, he was asked what music he wants to be
played at his funeral. He said "Beethoven's String Quartet No. 4." I became
excited. Indeed, this quartet has been "my music" since my undergraduate
years. Whenever, I had a setback in my life, I recreated myself by listing
to this piece of music.

Death is a setback to everybody, but Andres Previn wants to rise again from
Beethoven's String Quartet No. 4. You are invited to my
Beethoven page to hear what I am talking about. You can really see what
the harmony variable is in music.

The Harmony appears to be the common denominator for both physicists
and musicians.

Albert Einstein
composed a harmony of mechanics and electromagnetism using
the mathematics developed by Lorentz and Poincare. He also constructed
the harmony of energy-momentum relations for massive and massless particles.

Richard Feynman said
the adventure of our science of physics is a perpetual attempt to
recognize that the different aspects of nature are really different
aspects of the same thing. He was singing a harmony.

We can all agree that the harmony is an extra-dimension leading to
new physics. The question then is whether this extra-dimension belongs
only to the privileged class of those great physicists.
Click here to see whether
you can do or you are already doing the physics of harmony.

You may not like what I say about physics, but you will still like the
following music photos. When you attend conferences, what do you do
during the evening hours or when the talks are not interesting to you?
You like music because of its harmony.

While he was on the faculty of Eotvos university, he had
a Korean student named Ahn
Ik-tai. Before coming to
Budapest, Ahn had composed "Symphonic Fantasia Korea," whose
finale became the national anthem of Korea. Under Kodaly's
guidance, he added final touch-ups to his work.

Piano Concerts are held
frequently at this Chopin sites. I was there in 1994.
After the concert, while workers were removing the piano, I talked with
several music-loving Polish friends. One of them was a music student,
and the other was a Polish actress who became very happy when I showed
her a photo of my wife with
Actress Brooke Shields , who was a young popular American actress
at that time.

After Chopin died in France, his
body was buried in Paris, but his heart was extracted from his body
and transported to Warsaw to be entombed into the wall of the Church
of Holy Cross near the main campus of Warsaw University and the
stature of Copernicus. Click here
for the church and the statue.

Mikhail Glinka
was the first Russian composer who established the Western-style music
in Russia. His statue is near the Mariinsky Theater in Saint Petersburg
(Russia).
Here is the
Wikipedia page
about him. I was there in 2003 and went there again in 2010.
How do I look with Mikakhail
Glinka?

How about Tschaikovsky? I talk about him later on this webpage.

Rimma Sushanskaya was
David Oistrach's youngest student and is of course an established
violinist. I met her at one of London's Chinese restaurants in 1999.
We became close enough to produce this photo after we found out we both
like an Armenian composer named Aram Khachaturyan. This lady looks like
(looks better than) than Tatyana Samoilova who was a Russian actress who
acted as Veronica in the classic film "Cranes are flying" produced
by Mikhail Kalatazov in 1957. Many Russians believe she is the real
Tatayana.
Click here for her home page.

Irina Bachkova is a
professor
at Moscow Conservatory located near Moscow's Bolshoi theater. She was
born in Kazan (Russia) and was in Kazan during the summer of 2001 to
be with her mother.
At Kazan State University, while attending the 2001 Volga meeting of
theoretical physics, I heard her playing Beethoven's violin sonata
No. 5 "Spring." I heard this Sonata when I was a high-school boy, and
decided to live like the Spring Sonata. She was therefore playing
my life. I was so happy that I gave her a postcard carrying a photo
of Beethoven's four string
instruments from my portable photo album.
By giving this card, I was able to convince her that I was a Beethoven
lover. She also told me she becomes very happy whenever she plays
Beethoven's sonatas. Beethoven wrote ten violin sonatas, and his fifth
and ninth sonatas, known as Spring and Kreutzer respectively, are
very popular among Koreans.

Russian Ballerinas.
Russians produce great ballets, and those ballerinas look like dolls or
angeles on the stage. How would they look when they are passengers on
an airplane. I met these ladies on a Lufthansa flight from Frankfurt to
Kazan (June 2001). This photo was taken when we were waiting on line for
passport inspection at Kazan's international airport. They are holding
their Russian passports (2001).

Washington Opera. The city of
Washington, DC is fortunate enough to have an excellent opera company with
Placid Domingo as the music director. Its singers are often invited to
various social events in the Greater Washington area. Five of those young
singers came to a meeting of Koreans in August 15, 2010, and sang the songs
the songs popular among Koreans, such as
Il Bacio by Luigi Arditi. Koreans are song-loving people.
I was able to put up to put up high-level talks with these young artists.
I had a lengthy music talk with this singer.
I asked her whether she came from Italy. She said No, but her parents
came from Italy. I then asked her whether she was born as a singer.
She was very happy to say Yes. She became impressed when I told her
I have been Milan's LaScala Opera Theater.

Alice Conway (CSEP) plays harp on the
reception floor of the Ritz-Carton Hotel at Tyson's Galleria not far from
Washington, DC (February 2005). In addition to luxurious amenities, this hotel
offers live music performed by high-class musicians.

Heather McAuliffe plays piano also
at the Ritz-Carlton. I was very happy to hear that she studied music at the
University of Maryland. This photo was taken in April of 2005.

Since Einstein liked music so much, many physicists claim they
also like music. Perhaps I am one of them. Some of my physics
colleagues are more fortunate than I am. They married world-class
musicians.

Francesca. Renato Fedele of
Naples married this soprano
singer. In June of 1994, we were making a tour of Sicily while
attending one of the Erice conferences. She started singing when
we went to this Greek-style amphitheater with excellent acoustic condition.
I am listening. Sicily was a Greek colony
some years ago, and there are also Greek temples in this island. Here is
one of them. Her husband is an
Italian physicist, Renato Fedele. Here is my
photo with him taken at the gladiator's quarter where Spartacus
used to live, in Caserta near Naples.

Agnes is another world-class soprano
singer, and her husband is John Klauder. Here gave a concert during the
25th Colloquium on Group Theoretical Methods in Physics held in Cocoyoc,
Mexico (August 2004).
Here, she is making preparations for her
next song.
Two years earlier, in 2004, she gave a concert during the Wigner Centennial
Conference held in Pecs, Hungary. Hungary is her native country.
After the concert, she is with
a young Hungarian lady who assisted her on the backstage. She looks better
in
a photo with her husband . How about the young lady with her?
She also has
a photo with a famous physicist. Speaking of John Klauder,
he was several years ahead of me when we were students at Princeton.
He has always been helpful to me whenever I needed help from someone. Here is
my photo with him taken during
the Cocoyoc conference (August 2004).

Hibiya Public Hall in Tokyo.
Before coming to the United States in 1954, I used to pick up
Japanese music programs using my shortwave radio
(Hallicrafters S-38).
At that time, the Hibiya Hall was Japan's most prestigious performing
art center. I used to hear and tape-record live broadcasts from there.
The Hibiya Hall is located at the south-west corner of Tokyo's Hibiya
Park south of the Imperial Palace. These days, Tokyo's music center
is the Santori Hall located in the Shibuya District, and the Hibiya
Hall is used for rock concerts. This photo was taken in 1996.

Syria Mosque was the
home of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra when I was an undergraduate
student (1954-58) at Carnegie Tech (now called Carnegie Mellon University).
This music hall was within a walking distance from my dormitory. I went
there very often. William Steinberg was the director of the Pittsburgh
Symphony when I was there. He was succeeded by Andre Previn in 1972.

During the decade (1938-48), Fritz Reiner was the music director,
From 1948-52, Leonard Bernstein and Leopold Stokowski were among the
guest conductors. Laurin Maazel was born in Pittsburgh and maintained his
life-long association with hometown orchestra. I had an excellent
music education while attending
Carnegie Tech. Indeed, while in Pittsburgh (1954-58), I picked
up enough musical background to construct this webpage.

Vienna Opera House
has a very rich history. On December 31 of every year,
the Opera House presents Johann Strauss' Die Fledermaus. You
have to reserve your ticket one year in advance. Of course
you can negotiate tickets at black market for about $300, but I
do not trust those black marketers. I was there on December 31
(2006) but could not get in.

Augustinerkeller
is a Viennese restaurant serving Viennese dishes. I was there in 2000
and shared a dinner table from Germans from Munich. I was returning
home from a conference held in Kharkov (Ukraine). Due to airline
connections, I have to spend one night in Vienna.

In 2006, I went
there again, and asked the same accordionist to play "Over the Waves"
by a Mexican composer named Juventano Rosas. This is a non-Viennese
waltz, but he knew how to play. I was very happy because it was
my childhood favorite.

Grand Festival Hall, in
Salzburg (Austria). At the conclusion of a performance of Modest
Musorgsky's "Boris Godunov" (August 1997). The ticket was very expensive.

I was there in June of 2001
to see a performance of Pagliacci by Ruggero Leoncavallo.
As usual, this opera was preceded by Cavalleria Rusticana by Pietro
Mascani. This photo was taken from the balcony at the end of the performance.

Intermission. It is always a pleasure
to meet interesting people during the coffee break.

This new opera house was built because the Old Opera House was
completely destroyed duing World War II. However, as Germany became richer, the city of Frankfurt decided
to reconstruct this Old Opera House, and it opened in 1961. I was there in 2016 to
take this photo. I was
really there.

Three music Students. I met them not far from the
Moscow Conservatory of Music, also known as the Tchaikovsky Conservatory (2014). They said
they are singers attending a better music school. We talked about some of the opera songs.
They said they like Michael Jackson, and are fond of singing
Proschanie Slavianki.

Irina Bachkova is a professor of violin at this
Conservatory. She played Beethoven's violin Sonata No. 5, during a physics
conference held in a Volga city of Kazan in 2000. She is a sister-in-law of
the principal organizer of the conference. After her performance, I told her
the Spring Sonata was one of my favorites since my high school years, and
I gave her a postcard carrying the photo of the four string instruments Beethoven
used to own. I usually carry a copy of
this postcard in my portable photo album.

Close-up View. This new music
hall has the state-of-the-art electronic environment, but people say its
acoustic environment is not as good as those of Moscow's traditional
music halls.

This statue is across the street from the
Mariinsky Theater. I am happy to share with you photos
I took during my visit to this theater in 2010. There was a
a performance of Prokofiev's ballet "Romeo and Juliet."

Mariinsky Administrator. I met this
lady at the SPB airport while waiting for an AirBirlin flight to Dusseldorf.
She works on exhibitions for the Mariinsky company. According to her,
Moscow's Bolshoi is not the worst ballet in the world, but it is basically
wrong to compare the Mariinsky with Bolshoi.

J. F. Kennedy Center in Washington
viewed from the Georgetown waterfront.
This photo includes also the Watergate residential complex, the
Arlington-Memorial Bridge, a floating restaurant "Odyssey", and a
helicopter carrying an important person are also seen (July 2004).

After Aleko. After the performance of Rachmaninoff's
one-act opera entitled Aleko (gypsy).

After Bolero. It is rather boring to hear
this dance music by Maurice Ravel. Repetition of the same tune! However, this music
becomes complete if accompanied by different dances. I do not know whether it
was the composer's original design.

Armenian Reporters. When I was
there in 1998, there was a demonstration against the government plan to sell
their wine factory to France. I met these reporters. They wanted to hear
about Bill Clinton's personal life when I told them I came from the United States.

La Traviata in Sydney.
With a Korean student at one of the bay-side restaurants in Sydney
(Australia). In the background (across the bay, not seen in the evening)
is the Sydney opera house (one of the most famous buildings in the
world). One hour earlier, we were in the opera house enjoying Verdi's
La Traviata (July 1998).
It was a hot July month, but it was cold in Sydney. We were dressed for
the winter weather.

Teatro Massimo Vittorio Emanuele in Palermo, Sicily (2010).
This is Europe's third largest opera house (after the Paris Opera House
and the Vienna Opera House).
Many international musical events take place in this Theater.

Front View of the Theater.
This building is located at the Verdi Plaza in Palermo.

Prokofiev's Romeo was
on the program. I did not buy the ticket, because I saw this ballet twice
before in Russia. Once in Kazan (1999) and once at the Mariinsky Theatre in
Saint Petersburg (2010).

Members of the Opera
orchestra were having a relaxing moment before the performance,
and I was talking to them. I told them I saw the same ballet at
St. Petersburg's Mariinsky theatre in 2010. They told me not to brag too much. They were going to
St. Petersburg after their performance in Rome. It is always a pleasure for
me to talk to musicians.

Lincoln Center in New York.
The Opera House is in the center between the New York State Theater
(left) and the Avery Fisher Philharmonic Hall (right). This photo was
taken in 2004.

Christmas Tree at the Lincoln
Center. In the background is the Avery Fisher Hall (2007).

Cafe Fiorello. Many people come
to this Italian restaurant after their events at the Lincoln Center.
You can meet some interesting people here, often from your own hometown.
Here is the
restaurants webpage.

Covent Garden means the Royal Opera House
to those who have never been to London, but it is a district of London with many
theaters and many eat-and-drink places. Let us look at some photos.

I was inside in 2004 to see the ballet
entitled "Mayering" originally produced by this opera house based on an Austrian
love story and music by Hungary's Franz Liszt.

I was sitting next to a ballet
student from Japan. She was ambitious, and she must be an established
ballerina by now.

Thomas Beecham's bust is in the main
hall way of this opera house. The gentleman in this photo is one of the producers
for BBC, and his wife was with him. He told me the bust is of
Sir Thomas Beecham.
He became very happy when I said he was the conductor of the London Symphony.

Concert Hall in Kazan. Kazan is
a Volga city between Moscow and Ural Mountains. It takes one hour to fly from Moscow
to Kazan. Both Vladimir Lenin and Leo Tolstoy spent their times at Kazan State University.
Lenin could was expelled from the University because he was only interested in a Marxist
revolution. Tolstoy was interested only in girls and dancing. He was also expelled.

In November of 2010, I was inside
the Concert Hall, and took this photo before the performance of the Kazan Symphony Orchestra.

World War II Veteran. In addition to
music, I enjoy meeting interesting people. This elderly man fought at the battle of Kursk
during the war, where the bitterest tank battle took place. I asked him whether he was
in a T-34 tank. He said No. He was shooting his Shpargin (short) machine gun while running
around between the tanks. He is so proud of the medals he earned that he is carrying
the medal certificates,
and showed them to me.

Daughters of the American Revolution.
This is an organization of women who are descendents of those
Americans who made direct contributions to the Independence of America
from the British rule. It is of course patriotic and conservative
organization, but it is quite capable of adjusting itself to changing
times. This building has a large music hall called "Constitution Hall."

The Alexandrov
music group is a very important component of Russia's Red Army.
This group came to this hall and presented a brilliant performance.

Applause. Those Russian
performers are accepting an enthusiastic applause/

American Uniforms.
Three of those performers were wearing American uniforms. They were reproducing
the meeting of the U.S. and U.S.S.R army units on the Elbe River in 1945 during
the final days of Hitler's rule in Germany.

Musicians in London.
I met them while walking from Covent Garden to Piccadilly Circus. I
was walking with Vladimir Man'ko whom I met unexpectedly in front of
the Covent Garden Opera House (1993).

Stalin Organ.
This is a very unusual instrument. This photo was taken in
St. Petersburg (Russia 2003). I was accompanied by a young
Russian lady with a broad understanding of music. Here is
a
photo of myself with her in front of the Mariinsky
Theater.

Cranes are dancing. If I like
music somewhat excessively, it is due to my Korean background.
Indeed, Koreans are music crazy people. During the 6th century, a
Korean musician developed a string instrument and played it. The
music was so attractive to cranes in the sky that they came down to
the ground to dance to the tunes of this musical instrument.

Here is the photo of a Korean lady
playing this instrument at a meeting of Korean senior citizens in
the Washington area.

Click here for my photo with a
Korean student who can play this instrument. Her instrument was made
in North Korea. Korea used to be one country until 1945, and both
Koreas share the same cultural background.

When did I become interested in classical music? It was 1948, during
the final year of my elementary school period, there was an art festival.
There my female classmates performed a dance to a wonderful music. I
did not know its title until later years. It was the "Over the Waves"
by Juventano Rosas (Mexican composer).

This is still my favorite music.
While I was dining at Vienna's Augustinerkeller restaurant in December
(2000), I asked this accordionist
to play the Over the Waves. I was there again
in 2006 and asked him to play the same music.

Invitation to Dance by Carl Maria von Weber. In the spring of 1951,
I made a radio set with four vacuum tubes. This music is was the first
signal I picked up from Japanese broadcasting with my radio. I was
in the southern coast of Korea to avoid the Korean war battles.